Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) expects total deliveries of oil and gas produced within the region to “main” refineries within Iraqi Kurdistan to average just over 108,000 boe/d for 2014 (almost all of this is oil but the KRG presents the stats on a barrels of oil equivalent basis). A forecast issued by the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources shows that the construction of new refineries has raised processing volumes sharply since 2009 (see chart), before which only ‘teapot’ plants were operating.
Local firm Kar Group is processing crude in a new 20,000 b/d unit at its Kalak refinery near Erbil, which will take Iraqi Kurdistan’s total crude distillation capacity to 159,000 b/d when fully onstream. Other plants are the 34,000 b/d Bazian refinery near Suleimaniya, operated by local firm Qaiwan, a 5,000 b/d topping plant in DNO’s Tawke field, and around 20,000 b/d of capacity in numerous teapot refineries (see table). (CONTINUED - 447 WORDS)
